Prison of the Soul
Parts 7 and 8
by Kim W. and Mary M.
Part Seven
The scene wavered in front of them, clouding over and dispersing past them in a yellow mist reminiscent of stale cigarette smoke.
"Now what?" Ethan asked, some of the smart-assedness gone from his tone. As the fire was out, he didn't think Garoth would waste much time in possessing someone and making his way to the salad bar. He didn't mind letting other people's skins hit the fire, but his own skin was a little more valuable to him.
"You read the book," Giles said, the look on his face causing Ethan a moment of genuine panic.
"I didn't," Ethan said.
"You did, you bloody bastard. What did it say?" "I don't remember."
"Think!" "I don't-"
Ethan went sprawling from the impact of Giles' fist.
"Rupert, for God's sake, I can't remember. I was piss drunk," Ethan said from the floor.
"You can either tell me or I can open up your skull and dig it out myself," Giles said, picking Ethan up only to wing him back down. Then he noticed João and Grilliot staring at him.
"I can believe it," João said in a whisper.
"You can believe him?" Giles gestured at Ethan. "No, you can't. Don't ever believe him."
"No," she murmured. "I can believe that you and that one they called Ripper are the same person. What happened to those other people?"
Stunned by her comment, Giles could only say, "They died, however-"
"Did you kill them?" João asked. There was a long moment.
"One of them," Ethan said at last, as he wiped blood off his mouth. "Our mate, Randall. Eyghon took him over and weird stuff began happening around us. The spell to put the demon back didn't work, and Rupert panicked and sliced Randall up into lots of little tiny bits." He looked up at João and Grilliot. "Remember that if Garoth should come by."
"We both panicked," Giles said, in a low, stricken voice.
"Yeah, but you're the one who did the chopping," Ethan said.
The scene was beginning to clear. They were on the main floor of a house, with stairs at the side that lead up into the dark, and a doorway underneath it that opened to an unlit room.
The furnishings were rather garish, opulent as though a Sheik's palace had exploded. Someone showing off their money had decorated the place. Someone who was colour-blind.
And someone whose parties perhaps you wouldn't want to attend. Several of the fringed lampshades had peculiar red stains, as though they'd fallen into something at some point. The leather couch had a largish
crimson blotch on the seat, and a velvet covered chair was burned up the one side.
Ethan stood, looking around while keeping one eye on Giles.
"What is this now?" Grilliot queried.
"Our house," Ethan said. "Rupert's and mine, back when we knew how to live. Before we got too deep in with the demons."
"The two of you were together?" Grilliot eyed the two men suspiciously.
"If you mean were we fucking each other up one side and down the other, then the answer is yes," Ethan said.
"Just shut up, Ethan" Giles said, a little too quietly. Ethan edged around the room until João and Grilliot were between him and Giles.
João and Grilliot were also moving away from Giles, in small and what they hoped were inconspicuous steps, and ended up at the stairway by Ethan. Giles eyed the arrangement, and said, "I really wouldn't give
him the benefit of the doubt. He'd leave you to Garoth without a second thought."
João and Grilliot exchanged a look, but didn't move away from Ethan. Obviously, they'd decided they were safer by him, and Giles bit down another urge to pummel his former 'roommate'.
"This was a nice place," Ethan said conversationally to João and Grilliot. "And a posh neighbourhood. Hampton, just off Southway. Upper class all the way."
"What happened to your lamps?" Grilliot eyed the stained shades.
"We had a few parties," Ethan shrugged. "Things happen."
Giles sat down in the burnt chair. His anger at Ethan was being overlaid by worry - Joyce and Buffy were heaven knew where, and in danger. Garoth might not be far behind them. In fact, he expected the demon to appear at any moment. The best course of action, he decided, would be to press on, and soon. It wouldn't be easy with João and Grilliot so wary of him.
"We need to find the Druid," he said, "and for that, we need to come out of Ethan's and my memories. You've had contact with him," he said to João and Grilliot. "Perhaps if you focus your thoughts on when you last saw him….."
"But that was back in the caves, when the fire was still lit," João said.
"Which shouldn't be a problem," Giles said and indicated the living room they were in. "If we're able to go into my past, we should certainly be able to go into yours."
João and Grilliot must have seen the logic in the suggestion, despite their apprehension over the source of it. However, they glanced at Ethan for confirmation.
"I say give it a try," Ethan said. "We don't know how long we can remain here before Garoth shows up."
Giles' hands tightened on the armrests. Damn the wanker. How could people be so easily fooled by him?
However he waited, seated, until João and Grilliot looked to be deep in concentration, before getting up.
And, in a split second, he cleared the distance between the chair and the staircase. Not expecting Giles to come flying at him, Ethan had no time to react. Before João and Grilliot could do anything, Giles had
dragged Ethan up the stairs and into their former bedroom.
"Tell me what you read in that book or I'm going to crush your windpipe," Giles said, in a whisper intense enough to rock the figurative floors.
"Rupert, this isn't very polite," Ethan gasped, trying to disengage Giles' fingers from around his throat. His attempt was quite unsuccessful.
"Fine, then we'll wait for Garoth and I'll toss you to him myself."
"If I could remember, don't you think I'd tell you?"
"No," Giles said. "You always need to be at the point of death before you'll offer anything my way."
"Not always," Ethan managed, with a nod at the bed.
Incredulously, Giles eyed him. "Good God, man! There is something wrong with you."
Ethan stopped struggling. "Rupert, have you ever considered that, perhaps, the 'something wrong' is at your end? You've certainly had a worse time of it, in life, than I have. People die around you all the time, and the ones who don't die seem to get hurt a lot. Did you ever wonder why?"
When Giles didn't say anything, Ethan continued, "I admit to what I've done to you, but I've done it out of fear. Fear of you. You're the frightening one, Rupert. And I'm not the only one who says this."
These words were hitting home. Ethan could tell in the slight, bare loosening of Giles' grip. "We *were* good here, Rupert, for a little while," Ethan said. "We made love for hours, and we didn't always use magick to make it happen. We had something between us, you and I. We had something that I don't think you've ever quite had with anyone else."
One more word, Giles thought, and he's going out the window. Just one more.
Mercifully, though, that's when Ethan finally did shut up. Not that Giles was strictly sure he could have put the man through the pane. While he was, on the surface, still furious, underneath Ethan's word were landing uncomfortably.
The silence stretched out. Whatever João and Grilliot were up to down below, they were being quiet about it. They weren't coming up the stairs.
Perhaps, Giles thought, they were afraid to. Afraid of him.
"If I could, I'd tell you. I do want to get home," Ethan said tentatively.
"I have no reason to believe you," Giles said.
"No, I suppose you don't." Ethan tried to swallow, and found Giles' grasp was loose enough to allow it. "Well, my friend," he said, "Now what?"
Part Eight
His yellow eyes gleaming with gleeful malice, the vampire that was holding one of the men that came with the Slayer snarled, “Tie him up, ‘cause it’s time for some good, old fashioned fun and games. Or maybe ‘new fashioned’ cause the last time I tortured someone, chainsaws had not been invented yet.”
The vampire crouched down to look at the one called Giles. “Ready for some fun and games, Rupert, old boy?”
“When-whenever you are, Angel,” Giles gasped as he sat up straight, his face defiant as he blearily looked up at him. “Though I’d think you’d better change into your tutu for the ritual. We all know how you love pink.”
The vampire viciously backhanded Giles, flinging him on to the floor. Gasping, Muhyi stared at the man, wondering at how he could be so openly contemptuous of the vampire. He watched as the vampire picked him up and threw him into the chair again. “Rupert, old boy. That mouth of yours has gotten you in trouble again. I’m going to have to punish you again.”
“Make him scream again, Angel! Make him sing out his pain,” giggled a dark-haired woman as she clapped her hands gleefully. Her dark eyes gleamed with madness as she grabbed a gagged doll from a table, and poked at the doll’s eyes. “Punish him, make him hurt. Miss Edith wants you to punish him. He’s a bad, bad man.”
Even from his standpoint, Muhyi knew that this man Giles had been tortured for some time, and all these vampires had enjoyed his pain. Muhyi turned to Buffy, her lovely face marred with pain, guilt and sorrow. “I don’t understand. How can this be your sin?”
Her eyes riveted on the scene, Buffy answered quietly. “Because I wasn’t ready to kill him. I couldn’t kill him.”
“Why?” Muhyi demanded incredulously. “It is your job, your duty. As Joao said, you are the Chosen One. You are the Slayer-why could you not kill-“
“Because I loved him, and he was the only thing that ever made sense in my crazy and mixed up world,” Buffy said sadly as she interrupted him. Stunned, Muhyi stared at her as she talked quietly. “I changed him, we didn’t know that the curse had an escape clause. It took us all by surprise when he changed.”
“You loved him?” Muhyi said as he stared at her. “How could you love a vampire? What-“
“How could I love a vampire?” A sad smile quirked up Buffy’s mouth. “It was the easiest and the third hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
“Don’t you think that you’re wasting time, Angel?” said accented voice from the man in the chair with wheels. “I mean, here you are, wasting time torturing the prat when you could be doing some other fun things. Like, waking up Stone Boy here and sending the world to hell.”
Whirling around in fury, Angel looked at the chair bound vampire. “You trying to tell me what to do, boy?”
“Me? Telling the great Angelus what to do, now that is a thought,” the blonde vampire said mockingly. “How could I, of all the vampires in the world, convince you to keep your promise of sucking this world to Hell?”
“Why is that demon stopping him? And it’s the third hardest thing you’ve had to do?” Muhyi echoed, his mind trying to take in the scene happening before him and the Slayer who freely admitted she loved a vampire. “What was the-“
“Spike’s stopping Angel because we made a deal. And the hardest thing I’ve had to do was when I had to send him to hell with his soul,” Buffy said in a detached way as she watched Spike convince Angel to stop torturing Giles. She already knew the rest of the story as she looked behind the entrance, knowing that she and Xander were there, just waiting for their chance to rescue Giles. It wasn’t easy to watch over in vivid color all over again, but at least she knew the ending to this particular chapter of her life. “And that’s Buffy’s huge Top Ten list of guilt and regrets. Come on, let’s go and find that Druid.”
Confused, Muhyi stared at the small girl. “How can you be so-so calm-“
“Because if I don’t, I won’t survive,” Buffy said shortly. Muhyi still looked at her, confused. She looked at him grimly, her quiet voice speaking more volumes than her shouting ever would. “If I let my guilt rule me, if I let my mistakes haunt me, I won’t be able to do what I’m destined to. Save lives. I’m the Slayer, I don’t have time to wallow in guilt for the next year or so, if I do a whole lot of people die. That’s why Angel went loose without his soul for so long, because it was my fault he changed. My fault that he killed Jenny Calendar, the woman that Giles was in love with. And it was my fault that I had no choice but to send him into Hell with his soul.”
“Yeah, I know what I’m guilty of, but if I let that control me, I won’t be able to save the lives I can. Or get on with my life.” Buffy smiled grimly at the dumbfound Muhyi. “Now, let’s go stop wallowing in our sins and find that Druid.”
Muhyi stared at the girl, she was so small, and yet it seemed that there was a vein of iron running through her veins. He was quiet as he thought about what she said, and what his sins were. He caused the death of his brothers because of his quest for vengeance. Because of his hatred, his beloved wives, Fatima and Guri were sent back to their fathers, and his faith, he knew was not gentle for women who had once belonged to a shamed house. Because of his arrogance, he was trapped in the Soul Gem. Perhaps she was right, it was time to accept his guilt and to, as she put it, to go on with his life and save the lives that he could. “Muhyi?”
Buffy looked at Muhyi as he stared at her, but wasn’t really staring at her. The kind of look Giles usually gets when he’s trying to figure out what the latest demon was up to. “You ready?”
He looked at her, and smiled grimly. Yes, it was time to put away the guilt, and to help save the lives he could. “I am now, Buffy. Let us go and find the Druid.”
With that, the mansion dissolved about them, and they were in the caverns once again. Buffy blinked at she looked at Muhyi. “Okay, what just happened?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Yes, I threw her out, but it was more so much more complicated than that,” Joyce said through her tears. She looked at Karl. “You-I never believed in the Boogie-man, vampires or magic. That was all in the realm of fiction and fantasy, something that wasn’t real. All the rips, all the blood on Buffy’s clothes, it was from her fighting in school. It wasn’t because she was fighting for her life. It wasn’t because she was fighting vampires or the Boogieman. And then it all changed one night, and I still couldn’t believe...”
“Oh, poor Joyce, her perfect little world was shattered,” Laura cooed maliciously. “Poor baby.”
Not paying attention to her, Joyce’s chest started heaving as she remembered that awful night. She entered the kitchen in a daze. “I couldn’t believe. I didn’t want to believe her, even after all I’ve seen that night. Vampires exploding in front of me, in my living room. I couldn’t believe.”
“And in the middle of it all, was the thought that if everything that happened that night…if it all wasn’t a dream…then Buffy was going off to get herself killed,” Joyce said softly, tears running down her eyes. “Like Kendra. And I wasn’t going to let that happen. So I made an ultimatum. I told her to not even think of coming back if she walked out that door…Thinking that it was all a bluff for her to go out. Thinking that she would never walk out that door. But she did...”
“Mien Gott,” muttered Karl as he stared at her. “Your daughter never told you that she was a Slayer, did she?“
“No,” Joyce whispered as she stared at herself, crying on the kitchen counter, the back door wide open. “She never told me, and I never thought to ask…I should have asked. I should have seen what she was doing. Forced her to tell me what was going on, but I didn’t want to know.”
Her jaw tightened as she remembered the agonizing, hellishly long months. “And because I was blind, Buffy ran away…and I spent the summer in hell wondering about her, worried if she was hurt... or dead.”
“But she is not,” Karl said softly, his eyes never leaving her face. “She is obviously home, and with you.”
“Oh, yes. She’s home now.” Joyce watched herself cry, and a grim determination settled on her face. “Yes, she’s at home now. And she’s safe, but she still doesn’t tell me everything that’s going on in her life, but most times I know what’s going on…with the exception of what was going to happen for her graduation. She threw me out of town for that.”
Startled, everyone stared at her as Joyce made this announcement quietly. “The Mayor was going to turn himself into a giant demon snake and eat her graduating class. She told me to get out of town… she couldn’t have me in town, worrying about me while she had to fight him.”
“Then what happened,” Jerrod asked, intrigued with her story despite his self. Laura scowled at him. “You left your daughter to die fighting a demon snake?”
Turning, Joyce looked at him with such cold eyes that he shivered as she answered. “No, the moment I hit the town limits, I turned back. And waited for her in the house, getting her graduation party ready.”
“What a mother,” Jerrod muttered. “Setting up a party for her little baby while she goes off to fight a demon snake.”
“Poor Joyce Cleaver, her world was shot to hell,” Laura sniped again. “Some mother you turned out to be, kicking her own little brat out the door.”
Joyce eyes snapped back to her nemesis and her lover. “And what did you mothers do, Laura? Jerrod? Throw you both out of the house?”
Suddenly, Joyce’s house changed into something else. They were in the foyer of a house that was spacious and neatly furnished. Looking through one open door, there were pictures of several generations of families hanging on the wall. The sun shone through the white and blue draperies as the scent of roses clung to the air. The television set was on, and blaring loudly. A few feet before them, there was a set of double closed doors, and several muffled giggles and moans were heard in the next room.
“Where are we now?” Joyce asked, as she looked at Karl, confused. He simply shrugged as he looked around. “What’s going on?”
Then a distinguished, middle-aged man with graying temples, neatly dressed, walked into the house. He tugged at his tie as he laid down his briefcase. “Maureen? Jerrod? I’m home! Where are you?”
As everyone’s eyes turned to look at him, Jerrod’s eyes grew wide at the sight of the man. He frantically started to shake his head. His were eyes riveted on the sight of the man shutting off the television, then picking up his head as he heard the noises coming from behind the double doors. “No…no…No! Don’t go into that room! Dad-“
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“If I could, I’d tell you. I do want to get home,” Ethan said tentatively.
“I have no reason to believe you,” Giles said.
“No, I suppose you don’t.” Ethan tried to swallow, and found Giles’s grasp was loose enough to allow it. “Well, my friend,” he said. “Now what?”
“We try and find the Druid,” Giles said as he let go of Ethan’s neck. His eyes refused to look at the image of the bed that he and Ethan once shared. “He’s the key to all this, and will know how to stop Garoth, since you can’t remember why. Or refuse to say how to stop him.”
Ethan looked at his former lover. “So it’s business as usual, eh, Ripper? You ignore me for duty and whatever I say to you, and I go on my merry way.”
“What other business is there that we have?” Giles shot back as he looked at him. “Whatever business we had together is done and over with. I have a life now, one that I plan to get back to.”
Ethan sneered at him. “What life? You have nothing! Your job was blown to pieces, courtesy of the Slayer, you don’t have anyone important in your life because of the Slayer, and everyone is scared shitless of you. And anyone who isn’t, should have their fucking head examined!”
“Not everyone is scared shitless of me,” Giles gritted out as he glared at Ethan.
“So then why aren’t you with them?” Ethan shot back. He stopped when the walls of his and Ripper’s old house started to shimmer. “And what the bloody hell is going on now?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Through hooded eyes, Grilliot looked at Joao as she studiously looked at everything in the garish and opulent room. “Are you going to ignore me forever, ma cherie?”
Joao refused to look at him. “If I can, Grilliot. It is-it is just so much to take in-you murdered your own family to gain this cursed stone…”
Grilliot nodded as he looked at her. “Yes, I did. And that is why I never wanted to tell you, in all these years what I did-“
“It was wrong to keep it from me,” Joao whispered as she stood before a fringed lamp, maroon blotches decorating over the gold and deep blue hues. “How could you keep this from me? You, who taught me what it means to be free from my supposed betters. You, who said that we are all equal, no matter what status we were born with!”
“How could I keep it from you?” Grilliot said hoarsely. “It was not a choice in my part. To tell you was never a choice for me. How could I keep the stars of love in your eyes from winking out as you looked at me? How could I tell you that I, your mentor, your friend, your lover, was no better than any other in this Hell? I could not tell you, because I loved you…and I still do, Joao.”
Joao looked at him sharply. Grilliot approached her slowly. “I love you, and I will never harm you, I will never hurt you. I cannot. And I will always protect you, no matter what. And in this dangerous world we are in, that is all I can offer.”
“How can I trust you?” Joao said desperately. “Why should I trust you?”
Grilliot looked at her as he held his hand out to her. “Because, it seems that I am the only one that you can trust. Do you trust the English here? I do not trust any English, not here. Not now, not ever. The Slayer I will trust, because you said to, and her mother as well, for she is an American. But the English dogs? Not I.”
“Grilliot,” Joao said as she reached out to take his hand. Suddenly, the room shimmered and it changed again, into an empty street with a car parked in the front of a building, littered with paper. She saw the one called Giles and Ethan standing before them, equally confused “What is going on? Where are we?”
Giles looked at his surrounding, and groaned as he buried his face in his hand. “Bloody hell.”
“How much guilt is running around in your twisted little head?” Ethan yelped as he looked at him. Then he looked around him. “This place looks familiar…”
Suddenly, four figures burst out of the building. The smaller blonde was dragging the older blonde woman down the stairs as she barked out orders. It was the Slayer. “We have to get to the hospital, and fast.”
“Shotgun!” shouted a small, rattish looking man as he ran ahead. “I call it!”
The Slayer let go of the woman’s hand and ran after him. “Snyder! Get back here!”
Joao’s eyes widened as she looked at the figures of Giles and the Slayer’s mother, Joyce, as they slowly walked towards the car. Joyce was studiously looking at her feet as she walked, while Giles followed her, watching her. Finally he grabbed her hand, she stopped, but refused to look at him. “Baby, look at me.”
“No,” Joyce said, her voice muffled as her head remained down. Ripper lifted up her head with the crook of his finger. “What?”
“You scared of me? Because I wanted to shoot Ethan with that copper’s piece, baby?” Ripper asked. He watched her face carefully, and was startled when she shook her head immediately. “Then why aren’t you looking at me?”
Joao moved behind her lover as Grilliot looked at Giles, then at Ethan. “I do not understand what you have to be guilty about so far…”
“With Ripper, it could be anything,” Ethan said dryly. “If a bug gets squashed under his shoe, he feels guilty.”
“Because I really, really wanted you to shoot him.” Joyce sniffled as she looked away. Then she looked up at him, her eyes alit with fire as she started talking faster and faster. “He’s a very bad man, Ripper. He almost hit Buffy with that crowbar, it could have hurt her! And he says he doesn’t know that the demon’s gonna eat the babies but I think he does and I think that you should’ve beat the tar out-”
Ripper silenced her with a kiss, when she was clinging to him, he held her gently as he rubbed her back. “It’s all right, baby. I can beat the shit out of him later if you want me to. The prat’s not going anywhere, and you can watch me. Then we can get back to my place and-”
“All right, break up the hormone fest here,” Buffy barked as she pulled her mother away from Ripper’s arms. She glared up at the two adults. “This is major wiggins territory here. Giles, you keep your mitts off my mom and stay away from her. And Mom, you keep your lips to yourself, I’m getting nightmares just seeing you two doing that together. Come on, we have to stop Trick.”
As the car left with Joyce stashed in the front seat and the two men in the back, Ethan stared at Giles’s red face with harsh eyes. “You shagged the Slayer’s mother? You fucking shagged her?”
“Keep your mouth civil around her, you pillock,” Giles growled as he glared at Ethan. “I won’t have you talk about her that way.”
“Oh, so sorry,” Ethan shot back at him. “It’s bit of a shock, I didn’t know you liked shagging idiots. Feeling guilty that you shagged one? I always thought you had better taste!”
“Obviously, I do if I had started out with you for a lover,” Giles shot back, his face red.
“Then I feel sorry for you, she obviously didn’t want you back after that fun filled night,” Ethan said maliciously. “She just used you and threw you away. Now what the fucking hell-”
In the daylight, they stood in front of what obviously was a school. Buffy stood between her red-faced mother and Watcher, and smiled. Joyce stammered, ”Buffy assures me it was done in the fight against evil…we’re working on a payment plan.”
Buffy pointed at the dented car. “Hey, be glad that’s the worst of it. At least I got to the two of you before you actually did something.”
Joyce and Giles stared at the ground as the Slayer left them, their faces red and refusing to look at each other before they spun away. “Right.” “Of course.”
Ethan smiled coldly. “So that’s it…feeling a bit guilty we shagged the idiot, aren’t we?”
“No, we’re not,” Giles said through gritted teeth. “We did at the time, but we don’t now. And I have no idea why this cavern is showing these things up right now, I understood that it’s supposed to be the greatest guilt or sin, not every little one.”
“You’re probably loaded down with so much guilt it all seems like a great cesspool to be churned up,” Ethan snorted. “I don’t have that problem, no guilt here.”
Fascinated, Joao and Grilliot watched as the two men sniped at each other. Giles glared at Ethan. “Like you have nothing to be guilty of? No sacrifices to make you into a better looking, more lethal sorcerer, was there?”
Everyone blinked as they were thrust into a dark room lit with black and red candles. Joao looked at Giles, and asked. ”Where are we now?”
“I have no clue,” Giles said as he looked at the room’s trappings. He looked at Ethan, his face was white. “Ethan-this is your memory now, isn’t it? It’s your-“
“No, no, it’s not,” Ethan said frantically. “We-we have to go now-“
The curtains opened and a young Ethan Rayne, dressed in long black and red robes bring in a two headed bust, candles and herbs. As he arranged the items around him into a circle, he muttered to himself. “Leave me? I’ll show him! Who’s the one that taught him to conjure demons? Cast spells that turn people to badgers? Too dangerous? I’ll show him dangerous!”
Grilliot held on to Joao as she shivered, watching the younger Ethan chant. Giles’s eyes widened as he recognized the spell, his face furious as he looked at Ethan. “You were conjuring a wish-vengeance demon! Why?”
“To make wishes and dreams come true?” Ethan said faintly. “Can we go now?”
A clap of thunder was heard, and the younger Ethan crowed as the horned, three-eyed demon looked at him. “Why have you summoned me, mortal?”
“Now, that’s a loaded question mate,” the young Ethan crowed. “But I have a list here that you can fill for me-“
“Mortal, you try my patience,” the demon said as it looked down at the young Ethan. “There are no lists for Chrontog. Only one wish for one timely gift, one desires for one gift of time. What have you need? What have you for me, mortal?”
Ethan smiled coldly. “I wish for powerful magic, my spells that would work when I conjure.”
“And your timely gift for me?” Chrontog said, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. “What is you gift of time?”
“I give you this man’s happiness, this man’s time.” Ethan said as he held up a picture. “For twenty years, a score of years, may he only know hardship. Love that will not last, power that will fail. All that he cherishes, his suffering is all for you. This is the gift I give to you, mighty Lord Chrontog.”
The demon snatched the picture and howled with glee as it burned its hand. “I have accepted your gift, mortal Ethan Rayne. For twenty years, a score of years, this mortal’s happiness is mine. Mine to deny, mine to plunder. For this gift, our pact is sealed, your wish is done.”
With that, the demon Chrontog vanished with another clap of thunder, and a cloud of smoke. Young Ethan coughed as he waved the smoke away from his nose. “Right, nice doing business with you.”
The four watched as the young Ethan Rayne picked up his two-headed bust and walk out of the room, whistling happily.
In shock, Giles stared at Ethan. Joao looked at the growing rage on the other man’s face and shrank. Grilliot even stepped back, away from Ethan as he whispered, ”Mon Dieu. You cursed him. You cursed your own lover.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It was night in Sunnydale as Wesley entered the Summer’s home tiredly, hearing silence, he called out. “I’m here!”
“You’re here!” Willow shouted as she flung herself into Wesley. He staggered back as she impacted with him, then when another body was flung at him. The three figures fell to the ground with a grunt.
“Sorry,” Oz said as he lifted his head up and started to rise, bringing Willow with him. “It was Willow emotion.”
“Not to worry,” Wesley gasped as he mentally took inventory of himself. “Now what seems to be the problem? What can I do to help?”
TO BE CONTINUED